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On Tap.

Peticolas’ Prime Minister Gets Our Vote.

Welcome to On Tap! Each week in this recurring feature, we’ll take an in-depth look at one of the many beers now available in the suddenly crowded North Texas brew scene. The goal here is to look at these area beers without our local goggles on and to wonder aloud, “Is this beer good or do I just like it because it’s local?” Should be a fun experiment, no? Cheers to that!

Overview.
It was around this time last year when I reviewed Peticolas Brewing’s Ghost of Alfred Brown. Honestly, it’s hard to not play favorites with one of DFW’s best breweries. Peticolas isn’t one of those breweries that releases beer after beer in an endless parade of experimentation. Rather, it focuses on fewer recipes that represents classic styles. In the case of Prime Minister, Peticolas pays homage to a classic English style, one that’s not widely available in DFW.

Background on British Strong Ale.
According to BJCP guidelines, this style ranges from 5.5 percent up to 8 percent ABV. Fruity esters are common on the aroma, and the flavor should have a familiar British malt profile. Toast, caramel, nuts, and toffee are common aroma characteristics. While the beer can be higher on the booze range, the flavor should not take on any hot or solvent-like notes. Darker malts can be commonplace in the grist, but they shouldn’t be overused; the beer shouldn’t go off the charts as to affect the color nor take the flavor in to over-roasted mode.

Appearance.
Prime Minister pours clear in to the glass, with an deep orange, light copper sort of color. The head remains for about ten minutes, and then beautiful rings of foam appear down the glass as I sip it. If you have had a Velvet Hammer before, then imagine the color of that beer, but turned down some on the intensity and on the redness.

Aroma.
At first sniff, I get a solid amount of malt on the nose. It’s a warming sort of malt sensation, but not in a solvent or fusel sort of way. Behind this malt aroma is an inviting but subtle amount of fruity ester aroma. Neither of these two elements takes over in the aroma; it’s clean, balanced and not overstated at all. I get a small amount of hops on the nose, but the hops are subtle and sort of hang out in the background.

Flavor.
The malt sensation carries through to the flavor. It’s part caramel, part toast and a little sweetness to round it all out. There is a noticeable amount of alcohol present in the flavor, but it’s not overwhelming. I mean, the alcohol is here, no doubt, but it seems to be nicely balanced with the malt profile and the caramel sweetness. For hop flavor, the main thrust of hops in Prime Minister come in bittering form. I don’t get a ton of hop bitterness, but the parts I do sense in a significant way are toward the end of the swallow and somewhat in the aftertaste. Yeah yeah, I know that the aftertaste is more of an aroma sort of sensation, but I’m talking about it here.

Mouthfeel.
For its 8.6 percent ABV, Prime Minister is a total sleeper. The alcohol is there in the initial bite on my tongue, but other than that, it’s almost invisible. In other words, if I blind-ordered a couple of these at a restaurant, the buzz would quietly and quickly sneak up on me. Prime Minister is adequately carbonated — probably not as low as what you might imagine when your mind wanders off to some random British pub for some cask ale — but hey, we’re in the United States here. Honestly, if this beer were a lower-carbonated beer, it probably wouldn’t sell so well. I think that drinkers here have a tacit understanding (and maybe a bias) of what a properly carbed beer should feel like. And that carbonation range is relatively narrow. However, the ground may shift soon as more cask and firkin nights happen in DFW.

Overall Impression.
As there’s not a whole lot of comparable styles in DFW for me to compare it to, Prime Minister appears to be a nice example of the classic British Strong Ale style. I don’t notice any perceptible off flavors, and there’s a certain dialed-in and refined character that I get on this beer that I don’t get on some other DFW beers.

Ben Smithson is a beer fan, avid homebrewer and foodie. If he's not brewing, learning or writing about beer, you might find him hanging out at one of the local craft beer joints in East Dallas. To counter his bad habits, he rides his bike and kayaks when the weather is nice.